Method, Device and System For Creating a Virtual Local Social Network

ABSTRACT

There is provided a system and method for creating a local social network, based on a user&#39;s location and a user&#39;s virtual social profile (e.g. a facebook profile, a myspace profile) on a virtual social network (e.g. facebook, myspace). The method includes the steps of: (1) associating a communication device with a user&#39;s virtual profile, (2) detecting a communication device within an interactive region, (3) extracting unique parameters of the communication device, (4) retrieving data associated with the communication device and with the user&#39;s virtual profile, and (5) initiating data transfer based on the retrieved data.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This instant application claims the benefit of Prior U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. Ser. No. 60/990,309 filed on Nov. 27, 2007.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of creating a localvirtual social network. More specifically, the present invention relatesto a network, method and system creating a local virtual social network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is provided a system and method for creating a local socialnetwork, based on a user's location and a user's virtual social profile(e.g. a facebook profile, a myspace profile). The method includes thesteps of: (1) associating a communication device with a user's virtualprofile, (2) detecting a communication device within an interactiveregion, (3) extracting unique parameters of the communication device,(4) retrieving data associated with the communication device and withthe user's virtual profile, and (5) initiating data transfer based onthe retrieved data.

Turning now to FIGS. 1 and 2 there are shown portions of the systemincluding: an application running on a computing device and a remotevirtual network server. The system according to FIGS. 1 and 2 may bestbe described in conjunction with FIG. 3, there is shown a flow chartdepicting the step of an application associated with the presentinvention. According to some embodiments of the present invention, theapplication may be adapted to: (A) associate a communication device witha user's virtual profile (step 3000), and (B) update a database based onthe association (step 3100), both steps will be further explained hereinbelow.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system mayinclude an application as shown in FIG. 1 (e.g. software application),which application may be associated and/or functionally coupled with avirtual social network. The application may generate anassociation/coupling between a (user's) communication device (e.g. cellphone, PDA, etc.) and the users virtual social profile. According tofurther embodiments of the present invention, the association may bebetween the user's virtual profile and specific parameters of the user'scommunication device. The parameters of the user's communication devicemay be: phone number, serial number, production number, MAC address ofany of the phone communication components (e.g. Bluetooth transceiverMAC address, WiFi MAC address etc.), a unique name, a unique name andpassword etc. According to some further embodiments of the presentinvention, the association may be performed semi-automatically, e.g. thecomputer which the application is processed on, senses/detects thecommunication device and associates the communication device with theuser's virtual profile, or manually, e.g. the user manually enters theparameter (e.g. Bluetooth MAC address) used for the association.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, theassociation process may include the steps of: (1) selecting thecommunication device from a list displayed by the application, (2)sending the communication device a unique code, which sending isperformed based on physical (e.g. MAC address) identifiers of thecommunication device and (3) entering the received code in theapplication.

According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, the usermay select during the association process a communication method to beused when his device is detected, that is when his device is detected inan interactive region, selecting whether he will receive SMS's,Bluetooth messages, push mail and/or any other method of transferringdata supporting his communication device.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system mayalso include a remote virtual network server, which remote virtualnetwork server may include a database of all the associations of made bythe application explained hereinabove. For example, if a user isassociating its communication device with his virtual user profile, theassociation will be stored on the remote virtual local server. Accordingto some embodiments of the present invention, the application (“theassociation application”) may update the database of the remote virtualnetwork server directly or via another network interface as shown inFIG. 2.

Turning now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there are shown different arrangements andsetting of the system including in accordance with some embodiments ofthe present invention. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, the system may include a local virtual network server (“localserver”, “local virtual server”) and a set of detectors and/ortransceivers (e.g. Bluetooth device detectors, Bluetooth devicedetectors and transceivers). According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, the area covered by the set of detectors/transceivers(e.g. the area where a communication device will be detected) isreferred to as an “interactive region”. According to some embodiments ofthe present invention, the set of detectors/transceivers may be adaptedto detect one or more communication devices within the detection range(e.g. within the interactive region). According to further embodimentsof the present invention, the set of detectors/transceivers may befunctionally coupled with the local virtual network server in such a waythat a list of detected devices within the interactive region may begenerated by the local virtual server (e.g. each detector/transceiverwill pass the list of detected devices in his range to the local virtualserver). According to further embodiments of the present invention, theset of detectors/sensors may be adapted to open a communication sessionwith the detected communication device (e.g. pair Bluetooth device, sendan html or text message via Bluetooth, send a VNT file via Bluetoothetc.). According to yet further embodiments of the present invention,the local server may be adapted to open a communication session with thedetected communication device via the set of detectors/transceivers orusing a remote messaging server.

Turning now to FIG. 6, there is shown yet another arrangement of thepresent invention, wherein a communication session between the localserver and a detected communication device is conducted using amessaging server adapted to send messages to the detected device (e.g.SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, WiFi, IR, WiMax, etc.).

Turning now to FIG. 7, there is shown yet another arrangement of thesystem, including: a local server, a set of detectors/transceivers, aremote server and a messaging server in accordance with some embodimentsof the present invention. The functionality of the system shown in FIG.7 may best be described in conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9 there areshown flow charts depicting the steps of a local server and of a remotevirtual network server (respectively) in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

According to some embodiment of the present invention, a local servermay detect a communication device within the interactive region asexplained hereinabove and extract from the device unique parametersassociated with the device (e.g. when detecting a Bluetooth device, thedevice's Bluetooth MAC address is extracted, the devices services may beretrieved using SDP etc) (step 8000).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the local serveris adapted to send parameters associated with a detected device(s) to aremote virtual network server (step 8200 and 9000).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remoteserver may look up in a database a user's virtual profile which isassociated with a communication device based on the communication deviceparameters (step 9100).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remoteserver may retrieve data associated with a user's virtual profile (step9200), the data retrieved may be any type of data which the virtualprofile encapsulates (e.g., “friends”, “groups” and “communities” theuser is a part of, personal details, events, “causes” and/or any othertype of data used or defined in a virtual profile)

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remoteserver may send data associated with a user's virtual profile, orportions of that data, to a local network server (step 9300), preferablyto the local server who detected the communication device within itsinteractive region (step 8400).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the local servermay be adapted to send and receive data to and from the detectedcommunication device based on (1) the retrieved data and (2) otherdetected communication device(s) within the interactive region (step8500). For example, the local server may be adapted to send a message toa communication device which informs the user of that communicationdevice of the presence of other users within the interactive region(users with a virtual profile) and of similarities (e.g. sharedcommunities, shared groups etc.) between the virtual users profiles.

According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, the localserver may detect a user's exact location, e.g. by means oftriangulation, and inform other users of that location.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the local servermay also include a data base of all detected communication device(s),data associated with the communication devices and data extracted fromthe activity and data transfer of the communication device within theinteractive region. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the local server may hold a list of currently active userswithin the interactive region, with time stamps indicating the lastdetection time of a communication device. According to yet furtherembodiments of the present invention, a communication device may beremoved from the list of currently active user if the communicationdevice wasn't detected for a predefined period of time in theinteractive region (steps 8600 and 8700).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system mayinclude a messaging server, which messaging server may be adapted senddata (e.g. SMS's, push mail etc.) to a detected communication device andreceive data from a detected communication device, according to yetfurther embodiment of the present invention, the local server and/orremote server may be adapted to trigger data transfer to and from themessaging server and a detected communication device.

Turning now to FIG. 9, there is shown a remote server adapted tocommunicate with a set of interactive regions and local servers.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, data sent to acommunication device from the local server, remote server, messagingserver may be sent using SMS's, MMS's, hyperlinks, Bluetooth messagesand/or any other type of message known today or to be devised in thefuture.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the detectors\transceivers units may be an independent embedded computer adapted todetect communication device(s) within the range of detection and sendparameters between each detector/transceiver unit. According to furtherembodiment of the present invention, the detectors/transceivers unitsmay be operated in slave mode or in master mode thus enabling the use ofefficient network architecture(s) including a master device and slavedevices. According to some embodiments of the present invention, adevice working in master mode may be adapted to operate as a localserver. According to some embodiments of the present invention, a deviceworking in slave mode may be adapted to operate as a local server.According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, thedetectors\transceivers units may functionally operate as a remote serverand/or messaging server.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, thedetectors/transceivers units may be adapted to detect a communicationdevice using a first spectrum (e.g. Bluetooth) and may communicate amongthem selves using a second spectrum (e.g. WiFi). According to yetfurther embodiments of the present invention, the detectors/transceiversunits may detect and/or communicate using more than one mode ofdetection (spectrum), for example, a detectors/transceivers unit may beadapted to detect communication device(s) using both Bluetooth detectionand Wifi detection. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, a detector/transceiver unit may be configured in such a waythat will associate it with a specific location.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification.The invention, however, both as to organization and method of operation,together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following detailed description when readwith the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary computing device adapted to processan application which is adapted to associate a communication device witha user's virtual profile and update a database on a remote server inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary computing device adapted to processan application which is adapted to associate a communication device witha user's virtual profile and update a database on a remote server inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting the steps of an embodiment of thepresent invention which may be executed by an application adapted toassociated a communication device with a user's virtual profile andupdate a database on a remote server;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary arrangement of a local virtual network serverfunctionally coupled with a set of detectors and/or transceiver adaptedto detect a communication device within an interactive region andcommunicate with a network;

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary arrangement of a local virtual network serverfunctionally coupled with a set of detectors and/or transceiver adaptedto detect a communication device within an interactive region andcommunicate with a network;

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary arrangement of a local virtual network serverfunctionally coupled with a set of detectors and/or transceiver adaptedto detect a communication device within an interactive region,communicate with a network and with a messaging server adapted totransfer data to and from communication device(s);

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary arrangement of a local virtual network serverfunctionally coupled with a set of detectors and/or transceiver adaptedto detect a communication device within an interactive region,communicate with a network, with a messaging server adapted to transferdata to and from communication device(s) and with a remote virtualnetwork server;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart depicting the step of a local virtual networkserver in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart depicting the step of a remote virtual networkserver in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary arrangement of the system wherein a remotevirtual network server is communicating with a plurality of interactiveregions and local servers;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart depicting the steps involving a user'scommunication device according to some embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart depicting the steps of an exemplary system inaccordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary arrangement of a system in accordance withsome embodiments of the present invention, which system may include alocal virtual network server functionally coupled with anelectromagnetic radiation detector and an electromagnetic transceiver, aremote virtual network server and a messaging server;

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary arrangement of a system in accordance withsome embodiments of the present invention, including a mobile device(e.g. laptop, pda, mobile phone etc.) which is functioning as a localvirtual server;

FIG. 15 shows an exemplary arrangement of a system in accordance withsome embodiments of the present invention, including one or more mobiledevices (e.g. laptop, pda, mobile phone etc.) which are functioning aslocal virtual servers; and

FIG. 16 is a flow chart depicting the steps of an association processbetween a communication device and the system in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale.For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggeratedrelative to other elements for clarity. Further, where consideredappropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures toindicate corresponding or analogous elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuitshave not been described in detail so as not to obscure the presentinvention.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specificationdiscussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”,“calculating”, “determining”, or the like, refer to the action and/orprocesses of a computer or computing system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented asphysical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system'sregisters and/or memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the present invention may include apparatuses forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a generalpurpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computerprogram stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored ina computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, anytype of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs,magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs) electrically programmable read-only memories (EPROMs),electrically erasable and programmable read only memories (EEPROMs),magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions, and capable of being coupled to acomputer system bus.

The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the desired method. The desired structure for avariety of these systems will appear from the description below. Inaddition, embodiments of the present invention are not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the inventions as described herein.

There is provided a system and method for creating a local socialnetwork, based on a user's location and a user's virtual social profile(e.g. a facebook profile, a myspace profile) on a virtual social network(e.g. facebook, myspace). The method includes the steps of: (1)associating a communication device with a user's virtual profile, (2)detecting a communication device within an interactive region, (3)extracting unique parameters of the communication device, (4) retrievingdata associated with the communication device and with the user'svirtual profile, and (5) initiating data transfer based on the retrieveddata.

Turning now to FIGS. 1 and 2 there are shown portions of the systemincluding: an application running on a computing device and a remotevirtual network server. The system according to FIGS. 1 and 2 may bestbe described in conjunction with FIG. 3, there is shown a flow chartdepicting the step of an application associated with the presentinvention. According to some embodiments of the present invention, theapplication may be adapted to: (A) associate a communication device witha user's virtual profile (step 3000), and (B) update a database based onthe association (step 3100), both steps will be further explained hereinbelow.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system mayinclude an application as shown in FIG. 1 (e.g. software application),which application may be associated and/or functionally coupled with avirtual social network. The application may generate anassociation/coupling between a (user's) communication device (e.g. cellphone, PDA, etc.) and the users virtual social profile. According tofurther embodiments of the present invention, the association may bebetween the user's virtual profile and specific parameters of the user'scommunication device. The parameters of the user's communication devicemay be: phone number, serial number, production number, MAC address ofany of the phone communication components (e.g. Bluetooth transceiverMAC address, WiFi MAC address etc.), a unique name, a unique name andpassword etc. According to some further embodiments of the presentinvention, the association may be performed semi-automatically, e.g. thecomputer which the application is processed on, senses/detects thecommunication device and associates the communication device with theuser's virtual profile, or manually, e.g. the user manually enters theparameter (e.g. Bluetooth MAC address) used for the association.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system mayalso include a remote virtual network server, which remote virtualnetwork server may include a database of all the associations of made bythe application explained hereinabove. For example, if a user isassociating its communication device with his virtual user profile, theassociation will be stored on the remote virtual local server. Accordingto some embodiments of the present invention, the application (“theassociation application”) may update the database of the remote virtualnetwork server directly or via another network interface as shown inFIG. 2.

Turning now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there are shown different arrangements andsetting of the system including in accordance with some embodiments ofthe present invention. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, the system may include a local virtual network server (“localserver”, “local virtual server”) and a set of detectors and/ortransceivers (e.g. Bluetooth device detectors, Bluetooth devicedetectors and transceivers). According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, the area covered by the set of detectors/transceivers(e.g. the area where a communication device will be detected) isreferred to as an “interactive region”. According to some embodiments ofthe present invention, the set of detectors/transceivers may be adaptedto detect one or more communication devices within the detection range(e.g. within the interactive region). According to further embodimentsof the present invention, the set of detectors/transceivers may befunctionally coupled with the local virtual network server in such a waythat a list of detected devices within the interactive region may begenerated by the local virtual server (e.g. each detector/transceiverwill pass the list of detected devices in his range to the local virtualserver). According to further embodiments of the present invention, theset of detectors/sensors may be adapted to open a communication sessionwith the detected communication device (e.g. pair Bluetooth device).According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, the localserver may be adapted to open a communication session with the detectedcommunication device via the set of detectors/transceivers or directly.Turning now to FIG. 6, there is shown yet another arrangement of thepresent invention, wherein a communication session between the localserver and a detected communication device is conducted using amessaging server adapted to send messages to the detected device (e.g.SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, WiFi, IR, etc.).

Turning now to FIG. 7, there is shown yet another arrangement of thesystem, including: a local server, a set of detectors/transceivers, aremote server and a messaging server in accordance with some embodimentsof the present invention. The functionality of the system shown in FIG.7 may best be described in conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9 there areshown flow charts depicting the steps of a local server and of a remotevirtual network server (respectively) in accordance with someembodiments of the present invention.

According to some embodiment of the present invention, a local servermay detect a communication device within the interactive region asexplained hereinabove and extract from the device unique parametersassociated with the device (e.g. when pairing with a Bluetooth device,the device's Bluetooth MAC address is extracted) (step 8000).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the local serveris adapted to send parameters associated with a detected device(s) to aremote virtual network server (step 8200 and 9000).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remoteserver may look up in a data a user's virtual profile which isassociated with a communication device based on the communication deviceparameters (step 9100).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remoteserver may retrieve data associated with a user's virtual profile (step9200), the data retrieved may be any type of data which the virtualprofile encapsulates (e.g. “groups” and “communities” the user is a partof, personal details, events, “causes” and/or any other type of dataused or defined in a virtual profile)

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remoteserver may send data associated with a user's virtual profile, orportions of that data, to a local network server (step 9300), preferablyto the local server who detected the communication device within itsinteractive region (step 8400).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the local servermay be adapted to send and receive data to and from the detectedcommunication device based on (1) the retrieved data and (2) otherdetected communication device(s) within the interactive region (step8500). For example, the local server may be adapted to send a message toa communication device which informs the user of that communicationdevice of the presence of other users within the interactive region(users with a virtual profile) and of similarities (e.g. sharedcommunities, shared groups etc.) between the virtual users profiles.According to yet further embodiments of the present invention, the localserver may detect a user's exact location, e.g. by means oftriangulation, and inform other users of that location.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the local servermay also include a data base of all detected communication device(s),data associated with the communication devices and data extracted fromthe activity and data transfer of the communication device within theinteractive region. According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the local server may hold a list of currently active userswithin the interactive region, with time stamps indicating the lastdetection time of a communication device. According to yet furtherembodiments of the present invention, a communication device may beremoved from the list of currently active user if the communicationdevice wasn't detected for a predefined period of time in theinteractive region (steps 8600 and 8700).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system mayinclude a messaging server, which messaging server may be adapted senddata to a detected communication device and receive data from a detectedcommunication device, according to yet further embodiment of the presentinvention, the local server and/or remote server may be adapted totrigger data transfer to and from the messaging server and a detectedcommunication device.

Turning now to FIG. 10, there is shown an exemplary arrangement of thesystem wherein a remote virtual network server is communicating with aplurality of local servers functionally coupled with interactiveregions.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the messagingserver may communicate and manage data transferring to one or more localvirtual servers in parallel.

Turning now to FIG. 12, there is a flow chart depicting the steps of asystem in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, thesteps may best be understood in conjunction with FIGS. 10, 13, 14 and16. According to some embodiments of the present invention, the systemmay be adapted to associate a communication device with a first virtualprofile (step 1200). According to further embodiments of the presentinvention, the system may be adapted to update a remote database basedon said association (step 1210). According to further embodiments of thepresent invention, the system may be adapted to detect a communicationdevice upon its entering an interactive region (steps 1220 and 1230).According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system maybe adapted to extract unique (identifying) parameters of thecommunication device as described herein above (step 1230). According tosome embodiments of the present invention, the system may be adapted toretrieve data (e.g. from the remote database) associated with thecommunication device (e.g. a virtual user profile) step 1240. Accordingto some embodiments of the present invention, the system may be adaptedto initiate and trigger data transfer with one or communication devicesbased on the retrieved data (step 1250).

Turning now to FIG. 13, there is shown an exemplary arrangement of asystem in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention,which system may include a local virtual network server functionallycoupled with an electromagnetic radiation detector and anelectromagnetic transceiver, a remote virtual network server and amessaging server.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the localvirtual network server may have a processor and may be coupled to: (1) amemory (2) an electromagnetic radiation detector and (3) anelectromagnetic transceiver. According to some embodiments of thepresent invention, the remote virtual network server may be coupled to amemory. According to some embodiments of the present invention, thelocal virtual network server may be adapted to detect electromagneticradiation omitting from a first (1300) and a second (1350) mobilecommunication device. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, the local virtual network server may be adapted to detect,extract and transmit parameters associated with the electromagneticradiation omitting from the first and second mobile communicationdevice.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remotevirtual network server is adapted to receive parameters associated withsaid electromagnetic radiation and retrieve user associated data withsaid parameters. According to some embodiments of the present invention,the remote virtual network server is adapted to trigger data exchangewith the first and second mobile device based on said retrieved userassociated data.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the dataexchange may be facilitated using a messaging server. According to someembodiments of the present invention, the electromagnetic radiation maybe a Bluetooth radiation, wifi radiation, wimax radiation and/or LTE(“Long Term Evolution”).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the parametersassociated with the electromagnetic radiation may include Mac address ofthe communication device, services provided and enabled ports by theoperating system. According to some embodiments of the presentinvention, the electromagnetic transceiver may be a Bluetoothtransceiver, a wifi transceiver a wimax transceiver and/or an LTEtransceiver. According to some embodiments of the present invention, theuser associated data may include a virtual user profile.

Turning now to FIGS. 14 and 15, there are shown exemplary arrangementsof the system in accordance with some embodiments of the presentinvention. According to some embodiments of the present invention, thesystem may include a mobile device (e.g. laptop, PDA, mobile phone etc.)which is adapted to operate as a local virtual server functionallycoupled with an electromagnetic transceiver and detector (e.g. a laptopwith Bluetooth transceiver, a mobile device coupled with an operatingsystem and a Bluetooth transceiver etc.). FIG. 15 shows an arrangementwith more than one local virtual server, in this arrangement each localserver is a “node” which is coupled with an interactive region.According to some embodiments of the present invention, the remotevirtual server may be adapted to manage the interactive region byjoining the detected devices by each local server, and tunneling thedata\messages to the appropriate local servers and/or mobile devices.

An example of such management may be given in FIG. 15, showing a systemwhich includes a remote server, a messaging server, two local servers(“mobile server”, “dynamic server”, “dynamic agents”) populating oneinteractive region, which interactive region is currently populated withthree communication devices (1500, 1530 and 1540). Communication device1500 is detected by dynamic agent 1510 and is communicated with by themessaging server. Communication device 1530 and 1540 are detected bydynamic agent 1520 which is also the one sending them messages (i.e. theremote server is tunneling messages which have 1530 and 1540 asrecipients via dynamic agent 1520).

Turning now to FIG. 16, there is shown a flow chart depicting the stepsof an association process between a communication device and the systemin accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. Accordingto some embodiments of the present invention, the system may detect acommunication device (step 1600), this may happen when the communicationdevice entered an interactive region, or when a “dynamic agent” wasactivated in proximity to the device. According to further embodimentsof the present invention, the system may extract unique (identifying)parameters from the communication device as described herein above (step1610). According to further embodiments of the present invention, thesystem may be adapted to send the communication device a registrationmessage (step 1620), according to some further embodiments of thepresent invention, such a message may be an HTML message with a uniquelink, a text message with a unique code and web site address to enterthe code, and or any other message which will comprise means ofauthenticating the device. According to further embodiments of thepresent invention, the registration message may be sent to thecommunication device based on the extracted parameters (e.g. if one ofthe parameters is a MAC address of a Bluetooth transceiver, the messagemay be sent to the transceiver based on the extracted MAC address).According to further embodiments of the present invention, the systemmay associate the extracted parameters (i.e. the unique identifiers ofthe communication device) with data received from the user as shown instep 1640 (e.g. the user followed a unique HTML link and entered itsname or associated a virtual profile). This may best be understood inconjunction with the system described in FIG. 1.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, the system maygather parameters associated with the electromagnetic radiation of acommunication device. According to yet further embodiments of thepresent invention, the system may gather the parameters in a passive way(e.g. sensing) or using active procedures (e.g. SDP, queries, etc.).

According to some embodiments of the present invention, data sent to acommunication device from the (1) local server, (2) remote server and/or(3) messaging server may be sent using SMS's, MMS's, hyperlinks,Bluetooth messages and/or any other type of message known today or to bedevised in the future.

While certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, andequivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is,therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended tocover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spiritof the invention.

1. A system for matching users comprising: a local virtual networkserver having a processor coupled to: (1) a memory (2) anelectromagnetic radiation detector and (3) an electromagnetictransceiver, and a remote virtual network server having a server coupledto a memory; wherein the local virtual network server is adapted todetect electromagnetic radiation omitting from a first and a secondmobile communication device; wherein the local virtual network server isadapted to detect, extract and transmit parameters associated with theelectromagnetic radiation omitting from the first and second mobilecommunication device; wherein the remote virtual network server isadapted to receive parameters associated with said electromagneticradiation and retrieve user associated data with said parameters; andwherein the remote virtual network server is adapted to trigger dataexchange with the first and second mobile device based on said retrieveduser associated data.
 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein saidelectromagnetic radiation is selected from the group consisting ofBluetooth, wifi, wimax and LTE.
 3. The system according to claim 1,wherein parameters associated with the electromagnetic radiation mayconsist of Mac address, services provided and enabled ports.
 4. Thesystem according to claim 1, wherein said electromagnetic transceiver isselected from the group consisting of a Bluetooth transceiver, a wifitransceiver, a LTE transceiver and a wimax transceiver.
 5. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said user associated data is a virtualuser profile.
 6. A method for matching users, said method comprising thesteps of: detecting electromagnetic radiation omitting from a first anda second mobile communication device; detecting parameters associatedwith the electromagnetic radiation omitting from the first and secondmobile communication device; extracting parameters associated with theelectromagnetic radiation omitting from the first and second mobilecommunication device; transmitting said parameters to a remote virtualserver retrieving user associated data based on said parameters; andtriggering data exchange based on said retrieved user associated data.7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said electromagneticradiation is selected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, wifi,wimax and LTE.
 8. The method according to claim 6, wherein parametersassociated with the electromagnetic radiation may consist of Macaddress, services provided and enabled ports.
 9. The method according toclaim 6, wherein said electromagnetic transceiver is selected from thegroup consisting of a Bluetooth transceiver, a wifi transceiver, an LTEtransceiver and a wimax transceiver.
 10. The method according to claim6, wherein said user associated data is a virtual user profile.
 11. Adevice for matching users, comprising a processor coupled to (1) amemory (2) an electromagnetic radiation detector and (3) anelectromagnetic transceiver adapted to: detect electromagnetic radiationomitting from a first and a second mobile communication device; detect,extract and transmit parameters associated with the electromagneticradiation omitting from the first and second mobile communicationdevice; transmit the parameters associated with the electromagneticradiation omitting from the first and second mobile communication deviceto a remote server; and exchange data with the first and second mobiledevice based on data retrieved from the remote server.
 12. The deviceaccording to claim 11, wherein said electromagnetic radiation isselected from the group consisting of Bluetooth, wifi, LTE and wimax.13. The device according to claim 11, wherein parameters associated withthe electromagnetic radiation may consist of Mac address, servicesprovided and enabled ports.
 14. The device according to claim 11,wherein said electromagnetic transceiver is selected from the groupconsisting of a Bluetooth transceiver, a wifi transceiver, an LTEtransceiver and a wimax transceiver.
 15. The device according to claim11, wherein said user associated data is a virtual user profile.